Many Silverjet customers face applying as unsecured creditors to the airline’s adminstrator, while others who booked flights as part of a package will be protected.Following a long drawn out review, in April this year the £1 per passenger Air Travel Organisors’ Licensing Protection Contribution arrangements began as a financial contribution used to pay for repatriation costs and refunds from the Air Travel Trust Fund for customers of any failed tour operator.The FTO argued strongly that the opportunity should be seized to widen the scheme to include customers of airlines, but regrettably this was rejected by the Government following strong lobbying by some airlines. Events before and since have shown that airline customers badly need comparable protection to customers of tour operators, and in turn tour operators deserve a level playing field to compete fairly with airlines, given the increasingly blurred and irrelevant line between a ‘package’ and separate air and hotel bookings.Source: FTO; find full statement here>>.
